Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
Genesis 9:20-22
Noah had been held up as an exemplary man up till this point, but this incident shows that even Noah had flaws.
"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
So all of us need Christ's salvation.
Various Christians and Jews have had many theories about why Noah cursed Canaan. The surface reading of this passage doesn't make sense to us in our cultural context, but it must have made sense to them in their cultural context.
The explanation that makes the most sense to me is that "uncovering the nakedness" is a metaphor for sexual intercourse - that either Ham had incest with his father or his mother while Noah was drunk. Possibly his mother, and Canaan was the resultant offspring, and the curse was pronounced much later, after Canaan had been born. Another theory that makes some sense to me is that Ham may have casrated Noah while he was drunk, and so he stopped Noah from having any more children, so Noah cursed Ham's offspring Canaan as a result.
However, these are all just human theories -- the narrative doesn't give us a lot of clues as to what's going onn behind those few words. I guess it's one of those things we might not be able to understand this side of heaven.
Here are two web pages that discuss the various theories:
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